Whiting Petroleum

Whiting Petroleum's April 2020 bankruptcy collapsed one of the Bakken shale's largest producers. The company had been among the first to develop the Bakken formation but accumulated $2.9 billion in debt financing the drilling. When COVID crashed oil prices to negative $40 per barrel briefly, Whiting became the first major shale producer to file pandemic bankruptcy. The company emerged in 2020 with debt eliminated, then merged with Oasis Petroleum in 2022. Whiting demonstrated that first-mover advantage in shale doesn't protect against commodity cycles.